Budweiser Shootout

As Kyle Busch prepares for the biggest race of the Sprint Cup season, he'll also be preparing for two other races in two very different cars. This season Busch, who drives the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota in the Spring Cup series, will be pulling triple duty. He'll do truck, Nationwide series and Sprint Cup races at Daytona, California, Atlanta and Dover in the spring, Bristol in August, and Texas, Phoenix and Homestead-Miami in the fall. Why? He started laughing as he answered. "I don't know," he said.

As Kyle Busch prepares for the biggest race of the Sprint Cup season, he'll also be preparing for two other races in two very different cars. This season Busch, who drives the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota in the Spring Cup series, will be pulling triple duty. He'll do truck, Nationwide series and Sprint Cup races at Daytona, California, Atlanta and Dover in the spring, Bristol in August, and Texas, Phoenix and Homestead-Miami in the fall. Why? He started laughing as he answered. "I don't know," he said.

Tonight, NASCAR's best drivers get to have a few laughs at 190 mph. The show is called the Budweiser Shootout, and it's a chance to get a little wild and crazy before getting very serious next week for NASCAR's showcase race, the Daytona 500. The Shootout is a throwback to grassroots Saturday night racing -- a 70-lap, 175-mile sprint, divided into two segments, at Daytona International Speedway. In short, it's Carl Edwards' kind of race, even though this will be his first crack at the Shootout per se. "I think it'll be a blast," said Edwards, the 26-year-old driver who was the hottest on the tour at the end of last season, surging to finish just 35 points back of champion Tony Stewart, and tied with Greg Biffle for second, in the Nextel Cup standings.

The most important job in NASCAR, five years vacant, has been filled. Tony Stewart has emerged as the drivers' leader. He has by no means sought the role. It has befallen him. Whenever Dale Earnhardt walked into NASCAR's offices at a track, and spoke, everybody listened. But Earnhardt sometimes entered with his own agenda. And he often kept it private. Stewart, like Richard Petty 30 years ago, speaks with everyone in mind, and airs his issues to the public. With "only" 24 wins and two championships, Stewart has less than a third the numbers of NASCAR's winningest active driver, Jeff Gordon (73 wins and four championships)

Before 2006, the last time Denny Hamlin found himself at Daytona International Speedway, he was here in 2004 on a visitor's pass from close friend Dale Earnhardt Jr. Now he can compare directions to Victory Lane. "I had no idea where it was," Hamlin said Sunday after becoming the first rookie to win the all-star Budweiser Shootout. "I was listening to my crew chief. `Go there, turn here. Welcome to Victory Lane.'" The only ride wilder than his bump-filled, 72-lap race tour may be Hamlin's own story.

The most important job in NASCAR, five years vacant, has been filled. Tony Stewart has emerged as the drivers' leader. He has by no means sought the role. It has befallen him. Whenever Dale Earnhardt walked into NASCAR's offices at a track, and spoke, everybody listened. But Earnhardt sometimes entered with his own agenda. And he often kept it private. Stewart, like Richard Petty 30 years ago, speaks with everyone in mind, and airs his issues to the public. With "only" 24 wins and two championships, Stewart has less than a third the numbers of NASCAR's winningest active driver, Jeff Gordon (73 wins and four championships)

In the frantic, kaleidoscopic sprint called the Budweiser Shootout, what will be going on inside the cars tonight? A lot of laughing. "You can't help but laugh at all the things that are going on out there," said Dale Earnhardt Jr., who won in 2003 and helped Dale Jarrett win last year. "Guys are moving around, and you're drafting down each straightaway with somebody different, every time," Earnhardt said. "And you're like, `Yeah! This is all right, man! We're going to the front!' "And then he shoots around you and drafts with somebody else.

Daytona Beach: For three weekends in late January and early February, Daytona Beach becomes the world center of racing. It is then that NASCAR roars like thunder into the Daytona International Speedway for three weekends during Speed Weeks Saturday-Feb. 15. Speed Weeks kicks off with the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, the only round-the-clock endurance event of its kind in North America on Saturday-Feb. 1. Other events include the Budweiser Shootout on Feb. 7 and the culmination of Speed Weeks with the "Great American Race," the prestigious Daytona 500 on Feb. 15. For details on Speed Weeks, visit www.daytonaintlspeedway.

Kevin Harvick is making a habit of winning races at Daytona as the field wrecks behind him. As the drivers behind him twisted and turned into clouds of smoke, Harvick pushed past race-leader Jamie McMurray. He won Saturday night's Budweiser Shootout, a race that saw eight cautions and more than 20 lead changes. Harvick pulled ahead at just the right time for his first win in a year and a half. "I haven't done this in a while," Harvick said. Harvick's last win was in the 2007 All-Star race.

MAKE A DAY OF IT 1. Islamorada Today's Sweetheart's Arts & Crafts at Holiday Isle features works by artists from around the state. The resort is at Mile Marker 84. Visit www.holidayisle.com or call 305-664-2321. 2. Marathon The 12th annual Pigeon Key Art Festival features 70 national artists on historic Pigeon Key on Saturday and Feb. 12. Located beneath the Old Seven Mile Bridge, the island was a camp for workers of Henry Flagler's Overseas Railway. Call 800-352-5397. WORTH A WEEKEND 3. Fort Myers Buckler's Craft Fair showcases the work of 250 crafts people at the Lee Civic Center on Saturday and Feb. 12. Items on exhibit and for sale include folk art, primitive art, dolls, furniture and gourmet fare.

Before 2006, the last time Denny Hamlin found himself at Daytona International Speedway, he was here in 2004 on a visitor's pass from close friend Dale Earnhardt Jr. Now he can compare directions to Victory Lane. "I had no idea where it was," Hamlin said Sunday after becoming the first rookie to win the all-star Budweiser Shootout. "I was listening to my crew chief. `Go there, turn here. Welcome to Victory Lane.'" The only ride wilder than his bump-filled, 72-lap race tour may be Hamlin's own story.

Tonight, NASCAR's best drivers get to have a few laughs at 190 mph. The show is called the Budweiser Shootout, and it's a chance to get a little wild and crazy before getting very serious next week for NASCAR's showcase race, the Daytona 500. The Shootout is a throwback to grassroots Saturday night racing -- a 70-lap, 175-mile sprint, divided into two segments, at Daytona International Speedway. In short, it's Carl Edwards' kind of race, even though this will be his first crack at the Shootout per se. "I think it'll be a blast," said Edwards, the 26-year-old driver who was the hottest on the tour at the end of last season, surging to finish just 35 points back of champion Tony Stewart, and tied with Greg Biffle for second, in the Nextel Cup standings.

In the frantic, kaleidoscopic sprint called the Budweiser Shootout, what will be going on inside the cars tonight? A lot of laughing. "You can't help but laugh at all the things that are going on out there," said Dale Earnhardt Jr., who won in 2003 and helped Dale Jarrett win last year. "Guys are moving around, and you're drafting down each straightaway with somebody different, every time," Earnhardt said. "And you're like, `Yeah! This is all right, man! We're going to the front!' "And then he shoots around you and drafts with somebody else.

The 5/88 shop at Hendrick Motorsports transformed over the offseason to lift Dale Earnhardt Jr. out of his slump. Saturday afternoon it aced its first test of the 2010 season. Hendrick Motorsports swept the front row for the Daytona 500. Mark Martin's No. 5 Chevrolet won the pole and Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s No. 88 Chevrolet won the outside pole with speeds a mere hundredths of a second apart. "It's a tribute to a great organization," Earnhardt said. "The drivers don't have nothing to do with that."